STEPHEN  Bo  WEEKS 

CLASS  0FB86;PH.D.  THE  JOHNS  HOPKINS  UNlVERSrTY 


OF   THE 


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CAIROLUMANA 


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COLLECTION 

.    If 


IsiiliSl 


SEMI-CENTENNIAL 

SERMON, 


DELIVERED     BY 


Rev.  C.  D.  SMITH, 


BEFORE    THE 


Holston  Conference,  M.  E.  Church,  South, 


AT    ITS    SESSION     IN 


ASHEVILLE,   N.  C, 


OCTOBER,  1888. 


ASHEVILLE: 

Randolph  &  Kerr,  Steam  Printers 

188S. 


PREFACE. 


It  seems  to  me  eminently  proper  that  I  should  offer 
the  following  explanation  as  to  the  reasons  why  I  did 
not  follow  the  line  of  reminiscence  in  my  semi-centen- 
nial sermon.  Having  written  ten  or  a  dozen  sketches  cf 
the  early  Holston  preachers  which  were  published  in 
the  Holston  Methodist,  and  not  having  seen  an  ed- 
itorial sentence  in  commendation  of  them  ;  and  besides 
this,  considering  the  fate  of  those  members  of  the  Con- 
ference who  had  preceded  me  on  that  line,  I  found  no 
special  ground  of  encouragement  to  pursue  the  remi- 
niscenal  line.  It  occurred  to  me,  therefore,  that  if  I 
could  in  my  sermon  direct  the  minds  of  the  young  men 
of  the  Conference  to  such  lines  of  thought  and  study  as 
might,  in  connection  with  their  theological  course,  fur- 
nish them  with  a  great  fund  of  varied  and  useful  infor- 
mation and  at  the  same  time  improve  and  cultivate 
their  style  and  readiness  in  the  pulpit,  I  would,  perhaps, 
achieve  the  most  valuable  work  of  ray  fifty-one  years 
in  the  Conference.  If  mv  brethren  desire  of  me  remi- 
niscences, (which  differ  essentially  from  a  sermon), 
they  know  how  to  get  at  it. 

C.  D.  SMITH. 


J, 


in 
n 


My  Brethren  of  the  Holston  Conference: 

The  duty  imposed  upon  me  by  the  action  of  your  last  session 
is  a  difficult  one  to  perform.  In  the  discharge  of  this  task  I 
may  not  hope  to  satisfy  to  the  full  that  common  diversity  of 
taste  and  those  ever  varying  notions  of  propriety  and  fitness 
common  to  so  large  a  body  of  Christian  ministers.  The  most  I 
can  hope  is  that  I  may  be  able  to  present  to  you  some  lines  of 
thought  for  your  future  study  that  may  prove  to  be  useful. 
And,  although  some  parts  of  the  discourse  may  seem  out  of 
place  and  at  variance  with  the  usual  methods  on  such  occasions, 
yet  I  claim  that  they  involve  great  principles  and  truths  perti- 
nent to  the  studies  of  a  Christian  minister.  And  now,  with  a 
devout  reliance  upon  God,  and  trust  in  your  forbearance,  I  pro- 
ceed to  the  work  assigned  me. 

There  is  a  passage  in  the  loth  chapter  of  liomans,  and  the 
4th  verse,  which  suggests  the  theme  for  discussion  to-night. 
It  reads  as  follows:  "For  whatsoever  things  were  written 
aforetime  were  written  for  our  learning." 

My  brethren,  we  are,  from  the  beginning,  mere  learners. — 
What  we  know,  either  relatively  or  absolutely,  is  acquired.  The 
powers  of  the  human  mind  are  latent — are  only  constitutional 
capabilities  to  be  brought  out  and  developed — to  be  enlighten- 
ed and  quickened  into  their  activities  and  perceptive  force  by 
training.  The  human  mind  has  a  wonderful  adaptation  to  its 
surroundings.  The  world  with  all  its  objects  addresses  itself 
to  these  capabilities.  Hence  the  eye,  the  ear,  and  indeed  all 
the  sensibilities  of  our  physical  organism,  are  agents  for  con- 
veying impressions  from  this  objective  universe  to  the  brain — 
for  generating  ideas  and  thoughrs,  if  I  may  so  express  it,  in  the 
mind,  and  for  quickening  and  calling  into  life  and  activity  the 
mental  and  intellectual  forces.  Without  something  objective, 
either  real  or  imaginary,  there  could  be  no  comparison — noth- 
ing logical.  Indeed,  there  eoald  be  no  brain  work,  as  we  shall 
presently  see,  without  some  object  upon  which  to  put  forth  its 
powers.  The  mind  and  the  world,  in  this  regard,  seem  to  have 
been  made  the  one  for  the  other,  and  it  is  in  the  contact  be- 
tween them  that  the  working  machinery  of  the  brain  is  put  in- 
to motion. 

The  experiment  in  the  case  of  the  celebrated  Kaspar  Hauser 
•exemplifies  in  a  most  striking  manner  the  truth  of  this  normal 
condition  of  the  human  mind.  He  was  isolated  when  an  in- 
fant and  confined  in  a  dark  room  or  cell,  deprived  of  light  and 
all  contact  with  the  visible  outer  world  and  all  its  objects ;  not, 
however,  to  such  a  degree  as  to  destroy  the  power  and  growth 
■of  the  eye.     He  was  denied  the  sound  of  the  human  voice  and 


3 

everything  that  could  attract  and  call  iuto  action  the  latent 
faculties  of  the  brain.  He  was  cared  for  and  nursed  with  scru- 
pulous assiduity,  and  fed  and  nourished  up  to  the  years  of  man- 
hood. When  light  was  admitted  aud  the  eye  was  sufficiently 
accustomed  to  it,  he  was  brought  out  to  look  upon  a  new  world — 
into  contact  with  its  objects — to  hear  for  the  first  time  the 
sound  of  the  human  voice,  and  although  his  physical  frame  was 
developed  iuto  the  stature  of  a  man  he  was  an  infant  still.  He 
gazed  and  stared  with  all  the  wonder  and  amazementof  a  new 
born  babe  upon  the  new  objects  aud  beauties  which  struck  his 
sight,  and  he  had  to  be  taught  and  trained  as  other  infants. 
This  remarkable  case  illustrates  the  grand  truth  that  while  we 
are  iuvested  with  the  latent  elements  of  brain  force — of  mind, 
I  may  say — we  are  only  learners,  only  students  from  the  cra- 
dle, occupied  in  acquiring  knowledge  and  in  developing  and 
applying  that  brain  force  until  we  bring  out  and  sharpen  for 
use  its  highest  capabilities. 

Again,  the  progressive  steps  in  this  work  of  developing  aud 
training  the  mind  may  be  aptly  illustrated  by  the  progressive 
stages  in  the  work  of  the  sculptor,  who,  with  mallet  and  chisel, 
dislodges  chip  after  chip  from  the  rough  ashler,  until  finally  he 
brings  out  and  invests,  with  almost  life  expression,  the  features 
he  designs  to  delineate.  In  like  manuer  must  the  human  mind 
be  manipulated  and  brought  out  fronr  its  ignorance  and  shape- 
less originality  into  the  many  forms  of  mental  culture  and  beau- 
ty ;  aye,  1  may  say  sublime  divinity,  of  which  it  is  capable. 

This  normal  condition  of  the  human  mind  so  graciously  pro- 
vided with  an  objective  universe  and  all  necessary  collateral 
agencies  for  its  development  and  growth  exemplifies  the  moral 
coudition  of  the  human  soul  since  the  fall.  Without  God's 
grace,  aud  Spirit,  and  Word,  it  is  as  ignorant  and  helpless  as 
an  infant,  and  must  remain  so.  As  the  physical  man  is  at  the 
time  of  his  birth  physically  and  mentally  a  babe,  so  is  the  mor- 
al man  at  the  time  of  his  spiritual  birth  only  a  babe  in  Christ. 
As  in  the  case  of  the  physical  man,  so  God  has  likewise  sur- 
rounded the  moral  man  with  spiritual  conditions  and  agencies 
suited  to  his  development  and  growth.  God  has  invested  the 
human  soul  with  senses  corresponding  to  our  natural  senses — 
seeing,  feeling,  hearing,  smelling  and  tasting.  To  these  the 
Scriptures  address  themselves  in  the  work  of  man's  spiritual 
regeneration,  aud  through  successive  spiritual  agencies  to  all 
subsequent  development  and  growth  in  the  knowledge  aud  love 
of  Christ.  Upon  this  grand  Scriptural  truth  the  general  judg- 
ment is  founded.  Upon  it  rests  the  doctrine  of  rewards  aud 
punish meut  so  vividly  portrayed  by  our  Lord.  Without  such 
seusibility  the  very  idea  of  joy  or  pain,  of  reward  or  punish- 
ment, would  be  a  monstrous  fabrication — an  idle  and  senseless 
contradiction  in  terms.     Here  rests,  indeed,  the  reason  for  the 


Scriptural  contrasts  so  vividly  drawn  between  heaven  aud  hell 
— between  the  fires  of  the  bottomless  pit  and  the  glories  of  par- 
adise— between  the  woes  of  the  damned  and  the  exultant  joys 
of  the  saints  in  heaven.  O,  what  hallowed  thoughts  gather 
about  this  subject  of  spiritual  development  and  growth  as  we 
ripen  in  experience  and  knowledge,  in  faith  and  love,  "Till  we 
all  come  in  the  unity  of  the  faith  and  of  the  knowledge  of  the 
Son  of  God,  unto  a  perfect  man,  unto  the  fullness  of  the  stature 
of  Christ." 

Among  the  things  written  aforetime  for  our  learning  the 
books  of  Moses  stand  pre-eminent.  They  alone  give  an  author- 
itative history  of  our  origin.  They  alone  tell  the  story  of  crea- 
tion aud  of  the  high  faculties  with  which  man  was  endowed  as 
he  came  from  the  hands  of  his  Creator,  and  of  the  glories  with 
which  he  was  surrounded  in  Eden.  They  first  tell  the  sad  sto- 
ry of  the  fall  aud  expulsion  from  that  exalted  station — of  the 
darkness  and  gloom  that  followed — of  the  moral  wreck  that 
swept  away  everything  in  the  offspring  of  the  original  offend- 
ers except  the  constitutional  capacity  to  acquire  knowledge 
and  regain  a  better  than  the  lost  estate.  Moses  tells  of  Cain 
and  Abel,  of  Abraham  and  the  patriarchs,  and  the  old  worthies. 
What  a  sublime  history  indeed  did  Moses  write!  It  reaches 
back  to  the  profoundest  depths  of  antiquity,  and  reveals  the 
transactions  of  theocratic  times  and  the  nomadic  customs  of  the 
patriarchal  ages.  While  Moses  has  often  been  the  subject  of 
ridicule  and  the  coarse  ribaldry  and  jest  of  brainless  skeptics 
no  one  has  attempted  to  re-write  that  history — to  give  us  a 
more  trustworthy  account  of  the  times  of  which  he  wrote.  No 
oue  has  dared  to  deny  that  Adam,  and  Enoch,  and  Abraham, 
and  Gideon,  and  Joshua  lived,  and  no  one  but  Moses  has  giv- 
en a  historic  account  of  their  times;  and  with  what  majesty 
these  records  are  confirmed  by  "thus  saith  the  Lord  !"  What 
can,  my  brethren,  exceed  for  majestic  grandeur  and  sublimity 
the  passage  of  the  Eed  Sea,  the  scenes  of  Mt.  Sinai  and  the 
giving  of  the  tables  of  the  law,  together  with  the  heroism  and 
endurance  in  the  wilderness,  and  the  last  hours  of  Moses  as  he 
stood  upon  the  top  of  Mt.  Pisgah  and  gazed  upon  the  promised 
land  beyond,  spread  out  before  him  in  all  its  grandeur  and 
beauty?  Here  the  curtain  falls  and  we  dare  not  speculate  up- 
on the  probable  emotions  which  filled  his  heart  as  he  closed  his 
eyes  upou  the  scene  aud  went  up  to  God.  These  things  were 
written  aforetime  for  our  learning,  and  the  student,  whether 
theological  or  otherwise,  who  does  not  study  them,  though  he 
may  graduate  with  the  first  honors  of  his  class,  is  sadly  defi- 
cient. He  is  deficient  in  regard  to  a  knowledge  of  bis  origin 
and  the  earliest  authentic  history  of  the  race — deficient  as  to 
any  correct  knowledge  of  the  one  Divine  will  which  directs 
and  governs  all.     He  is  deficient  as  to  the  originalcode  which 


invests  all  human  as  well  as  divine  law  with  force  aud  author- 
ity. And  he  is  deficient  in  the  most  vital  oi'  all  points,  the  first 
lesson  which  teaches  man  what  he  is  and  points  to  a  Messiah 
to  come — a  lesson  which  first  portrays  the  beneficence  of  our 
merciful  Creator  in  providing  for  us  life  and  hope.  Whatever 
else  you  may  study,  1  beseech  you  to  study  and  master  the  Mo- 
saic records.  It  will  develop  the  noblest  elements  of  your 
Christian  manhood.  It  will  fill  your  minds  with  the  snblimest 
conceptions  of  Cod  and  your  relation  to  him  of  which  they  are 
capable.  It  will  solidify  and  strengthen  every  other  knowl- 
edge and  grace  you  may  acquire,  and  it  will  put  into  motion  in 
your  life  aud  faith  an  otherwise  dormant  power  for  good,  with- 
out which  every  success  would  be  a  curse  and  life's  labors 
would  prove  a  wreck  and  a  ruin. 

Again,  we  consider  the  things  "written  aforetime  for  our 
learniug"  in  the  books  of  the  Hebrew  Prophets.  They  were, 
by  plenary  inspiration,  endued  with  a  foreknowledge  of  com- 
ing events.  There  were  Isaiah,  and  Jeremiah,  and  Ezekiel, 
and  Daniel,  and  the  other  prophets  to  whom  the  prophetic  vis- 
ions were  allowed,  and  through  whom  the  Divine  hand  traced 
in  graphic  pictures  the  rise  and  glory  and  then  the  downfall 
and  ignominy  of  empires  and  powers — the  hideousuess  and  suc- 
cess, and  then  the  overthrow  of  the  man  of  sin — the  glory  and 
grandeur  and  then  the  decline  aud  desolations  of  the  Jewish 
church — the  terrible  destruction  of  Jerusalem  and  the  end  of 
the  Jewish  nation,  aud  then  we  have  a  picture  drawn  in  colors 
of  living  light  of  the  coming  of  Messiah  the  Prince  to  conquest 
and  victory,  and  the  universality  and  perpetuity  of  his  reign 
and  dominion.  We  have,  indeed,  in  these  prophetic  visions  a 
divine  panorama  in  which  God's  method  of  dealing  with  hu- 
man powers  is  set  forth,  where  Satau  and  sin  are  arrayed  on 
one  side,  and  God  and  righteousness  on  the  other:  where  hu- 
man governments  and  powers  have  assumed  authority  to  crush 
out  Messiah  the  Prince,  and  God  and  hi«  Christ  have  under- 
taken to  maintain  the  divine  authority  and  integrity.  In  this 
conflict— in  these  wars  so  graphically  described  in  these  pro- 
phetic visions — we  have  a  wonderful  display  of  the  arrogance 
of  the  powers  of  darkness  as  arrayed  against  the  authority  of 
the  Almighty.  Here  are  some  examples  of  such  arrogance  :— 
Proud  Niuoveh  was,  in  human  estimation,  exalted  to  heaveu. 
Her  princes  and  her  people  waxed  strong  against  the  God  of 
battles.  But  when  God  touched  her  she  sank — when  the  di- 
vine fiat  went  forth  she  become  a  heap  of  ruins,  aud  the  great- 
ness of  her  boasted  architects  aud  builders  and  the  glory  of 
her  rulers  lie  buried  beneath  the  place  where  Xineveh  once 
stood.  Turn  now  your  eyes  to  another  of  these  prophetic  vis- 
ions and  see  imperial  Babylon  as  it  was  in  the  days  of  Isaiah. 
It  was  the  centre  of  the  wealth  of  nations,  the    metropolis  of 


G 

ancient  fashion  and  luxury,  the  haughty  and  giddy  mother  of 
harlots,  the  petulant  and  supercilious  devotee  of  passion  and 
lust,  the  very  school  of  iniquity  and  the  friend  and  apologist  of 
all  crime.  It  was  the  embodiment  and  personification  of  im- 
perial insolence  toward  God  and  heaven.  It  entrenched  itself 
behind  human  greatness  and  human  power  with  the  utmost 
confidence  iu  its  safety  and  stability.  But  these  could  not  save 
even  Babylon.  For  when  God  arose  in  his  majesty  and  pro- 
claimed her  overthrow  and  her  ruin  the  besom  of  destruction 
swept  her  from  her  foundations  forever.  Aye,  imperial  Baby- 
lon went  down  amidst  the  orgies  of  a  drunken  debauch.  And 
what  shall  I  say  of  opulent  Tyre,  the  commercial  centre  of  the 
eastern  world  iu  prophetic  times  I  With  her  purple  and  fine 
linen,  her  merchandise  in  woods  and  precious  ointments,  her 
merchant  princes  and  her  mei chant  ships  upon  the  high  sea*, 
her  harbor  and  fortifications,  her  merchandise  in  gold,  and  sil- 
ver, and  men,  and  precious  stones,  and  in  all  manner  of  mate 
rial  for  traffic.  But  with  all  her  opulence,  her  grandeur  and 
her  prestige  of  wealth  and  fashion  she  went  down  at  the  voice 
of  God,  and  the  site  where  this  once  proud  mistress  of  the  seas 
stood  haslonge  since  been  covered  with  the  nets  of  fishermen^ 
Likewise  Moab,  and  Syria,  and  Damascus  and  all  the  regions 
embraced  in  the  prophetic  denunciations  have  passed  under 
the  hand  of  the  Almighty  and  only  remain  as  monuments  of 
his  truth  and  justice.  What  grand  lessons  for  our  study  the 
prophets  have  written  !  What  volumes  so  pregnant  with  di- 
vine truth  and  justice  for  our  learning,  and  what  inexorable  ad- 
monitions to  all  supercilious  and  corrupt  cities  and  govern 
ments  and  powers  in  all  the  ages. 

There  are  other  lines  of  thought  suggested  by  the  text  which 
it  may,  perhaps,  be  profitable  to  consider.  In  classic  lore  much 
has  been  written  for  our  learning.  Cresar,  and  Virgil,  and 
Cicero  and  their  contemporaries  have  given  us  valuable  lessons 
in  philology — have  furnished  us  a  language  which  has  confer- 
red untold  benefits,  especially  upon  the  English  speaking  peo 
pies  of  the  earth.  We  cannot  ignore  this  averment  because 
the  Latin  has  furnished  a  larpe  share  of  the  radicals  in  our 
English  words,  and  in  an  important  degree  it  has  smoothed 
down  much  of  the  roughness  of  our  old  Anglo-Saxon  and  en- 
riched and  embellished  our  language.  Tndeed,  there  is  much 
to  be  learned  from  the  old  classics  in  rhetoric  and  oratory. 
There  is  much,  too,  while  we  admit  their  faults,  from  which  we 
may  draw  valuable  lessons  for  our  study  in  some  of  their  law* 
and  customs.  Plato  said,  "Shall  we  not  ordain  by  law  that 
boys  shall  not,  on  any  account,  taste  wine  till  they  are  eighteen 
years  old  ?"  "And  among  the  Bomans  no  youths  of  quality 
drank  any  wine  till  they  were  thirty  years  of  age."  There  was 
a  profound  philosophy  in  all  this.      For  they  had  learned  what 


we  with  our  boasted  civilization  seem  slow  to  learn — that  a  na- 
tiou1s  youth,  educated  and  trained  in  the  strictest  habits  of  so- 
briety and  abstinence,  always  developed  the  noblest  traits  of 
national  manhood  and  furnished  the  surest  means  of  national 
defense  and  progress.  To  these  prohibitory  laws  and  habits 
of  sobriety  may  be  attributed  much  of  that  Lioman  valor  which 
imparted  to  the  Koinan  cohorts  that  dauntless  courage  which 
made  them  invincible  on  the  field  of  battle.  The  records  show 
us  also  that  with  the  introduction  of  luxury  and  the  abandon- 
ment of  their  prohibitory  statutes,  Roman  valor  and  manhood 
declined,  and  finally,  as  a  legitimate  result,  the  glory  of  that 
once  proud  empire  culminated  in  desolation  and  ruin.  There 
is  much  here  for  our  learning  ;  much  for  our  devout  study  if  we 
would  see  the  world  subdued  to  Christ.  Would  to  God  that 
our  own  beloved  America  could  be  aroused  to  comprehend  the 
sources  of  national  manhood  and  defense  as  did  those  sturdy 
old  Romans  ! 

Again,  the  things  written  aforetime  by  the  ancient  Greeks 
contain  much  for  our  learning.  Their  mythology  is  full  of  food 
for  thought.  They  believed  in  A  super-ruling  power.  They 
believed  that  there  was  a  presiding  diviuity  over  everything, 
and  while  they  did  not  comprehend  the  personality  and  attri- 
butes of  the  Supreme  God,  as  did  Moses  and  the  Hebrew 
prophets,  yet  they  did  not  attribute  anything  to  mere  chance. 
They  did  not  have  protoplasm  or  evolution  working  up  man, 
by  some  inhereut  power  or  process,  from  a  brainless  worm  into 
the  likeness  and  image  of  God.  With  them  nothing  transpired 
without  the  presence  and  agency  of  a  deity,  and  although  they 
had  a  presiding-  divinity  for  each  object  in  the  heavens  above 
and  in  the  earth  beneath,  yet  each  of  these  deities  was  with 
them  a  very  God.  The  idea  of  a  supreme  divinity,  though 
vague  and  fabulous,  nevertheless  impressed  itself  upon  their 
architecture — an  architecture  which  remains,  in  its  essential 
features,  unrivaled.  Each  creation  of  architectural  order  atiu 
beauty  in  their  minds  came  out  from  a  brain  fired  with  the 
idea  of  a  God.  This  conception,  in  the  Grecian  mind,  of  the 
idea  of  a  supreme  divinity  lay  not  only  at  the  foundation  of  ev- 
ery conception  of  order  and  harmony,  of  grandeur  and  beauty, 
of  proportion  and  adaptability,  in  the  mind  of  a  Grecian  archi- 
tect, but  in  the  minds  of  all  others  as  well.  It  lent  its  charms 
to  Grecian  sculpture  and  painting.  It  was  the  soul  and  inspi- 
ration of  Grecian  eloquence,  and  poetry,  and  music.  This  sug- 
gests to  us  a  valuable  lessou  for  our  learning  as  public  speak- 
ers. Now,  by  way  of  contrast,  I  ask  what  conceptions  of 
grandeur  or  beauty  could  protoplasm  have  inspired  in  the 
mmd  of  a  Grecian  master  in  the  arts?  What  additional 
charms  could  protoplasm  have  imparted  to  the  eloquence  of 
Grecian    orators?       What    new    ami    additional    sweet  chord 


could  protoplasm  have  touched  in  the  music  of  a  Greek  maid- 
en 1  In  what  possible  respect  could  protoplasm  or  evolution 
have  embellished  and  beautified  Grecian  poetry if  It  needs  on- 
ly a  moment's  consideration  of  the  difference  between  the  idea 
of  a  supreme  diviuity  when  fixed  in  the  mind  and  the  vagaries 
of  protoplasm  to  convince  you  what  it  was  that  made  Grecian 
arts  the  models  for  the  world ;  what  it  was  that  imparted  to 
Grecian  eloquence  those  charms  which  all  ages  have  endeav- 
ored to  copy.  It  was  the  divinity  which  operated  upon  them. 
Nor  were  their  gods  distant  deities — mere  idlers  in  the  un- 
known realms.  They  were  ever  present  to  their  minds,  and 
their  action  was  constant  and  immediate,  and  it  was  this  con- 
stant contact  wh  ch  gave  them  the  inspiration.  And  although 
this  mythology  was  made  up  of  fabulous  and  imaginary  gods, 
yet  the  ever  present  contact  of  these  deities  with  the  mind  and 
the  influence  it  had  upon  Grecian  worship  operated  upon  them 
as  though  it  were  supreme.  In  this  they  may  well  put  us  to 
shame  who  so  often  isolate  our  God  and  put  Him  at  a  great  dis- 
tance during  our  devotions,  and  thereby  deprive  ourselves  of 
the  inspiration  resulting  from  immediate  contact.  These 
things  were  written  aforetime  for  our  learning,  and  they  teach 
us  that  in  whatever  age  men  may  have  lived,  and  whatever 
may  have  been  their  nationality  or  their  civilization,  every 
conception  of  order,  harmony,  grandeur,  sublimity,  beauty  and 
symmetry  have  ever  been  associated,  in  some  way,  in  the  hu- 
man mind  with  the  idea  of  a  supreme  God — an  almighty  cre- 
ative power  and  skill. 

In  the  science  of  mathematics,  whatsoever  things  were  writ- 
ten aforetime  were  written  for  our  learning.  The  old  masters 
in  this  science  cleared  away  the  rubbish  and  laid  the  founda- 
tions which  no  one  has  ever  dared  to  tear  up.  In  the  progress 
of  this  science,  while  much  has  been  done  to  advance  it,  there 
has  never  been  discovered  a  substitute  for  the  problems  of 
Euclid.  Indeed  the  great  Pythagoras  did  a  work  in  his  day 
which  has  come  down  through  the  ages  for  the  benefit  of  our 
race.  But  what  has  this  to  do,  you  ask,  with  the  Christian 
aninistry  1  I  answer,  much  every  way.  There  is  nothing 
which  so  quickens  and  sharpens  the  intellectual  and  percep- 
tive faculties  and  trains  the  mind  as  the  science  of  mathemat- 
ics, and  any  education  which  is  deficient  in  this  is  deficient  in 
a  vital  point — deficient  in  the  most  practical  of  all  sciences, 
without  a  knowledge  of  which  no  minister  is  fully  qualified  to 
teach  Christianity  in  this  practical  and  matter  of  fact  age  of 
the  world.  The  theological  student  whose  training  is  deficient 
in  the  first  great  principles  of  mathematical  science  will,  I  war- 
rant you,  be  a  dull  student — one  slow  to  comprehend  and  grap- 
ple with  those  great  logical  problems  in  which  infidelity  at- 
tacks our  beloved  Christianity.  The  sharper  and  more  incisive 


!> 

the  intellectual  and  perceptive  forces,  the  greater  will  be  the 
capacity  for  analysis,  and  when  this  is  sanctified  by  the  Spirit 
and  grace  of  God,  the  greater  will  be  the  force  in  the  pulpit. 
If  these  premises  be  correct  there  is  much  in  mathemati«al 
science  for  our  learning — a  vital  point  in  our  mental  training 
and  qualification  to  meet  the  sophistry  and  pseudo  infidelity 
-of  the  times  in  our  glorious  work  for  the  Master's  cause. 

In  the  science  of  astronomy,  too,  the  old  author's  wrote  much 
^for  our  learning."  Aristotle,  Hipparchus,  Gallileo,  Kepler. 
Copernicus  and  Newton  traversed  the  unexplored  fields  and 
worked  out  problems  which  have  conferred  untold  benefits  up- 
on mankind;  problems  which  have  made  us  familiar  with 
much  that  was  written  by  Moses  in  Genesis.  It  has  exalted 
navigation  and  made  the  oceans  tributary  to  the  civilization  of 
the  nations  of  the  earth.  It  has  opened  up  a  high  road  upon 
the  seas  for  the  gospel  of  the  Sou  of  God,  and,  thank  heaven, 
assured  the  fulfillment  of  that  grand  prophetic  promise  that 
God  will  give  to  his  Son  the  heathen  for  his  inheritance  and 
the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth  for  his  possession.  Among 
the  benefactors  of  this  science  and  of  our  race  Newton  stands 
pre-eminent,  for  it  was  he  who  first  clearly  appreheuded  and 
applied  the  principle  which  solved  the  mysteries  of  the  solar 
■system — that  law  which  binds  the  spheres  to  their  circuits  and 
maintains  order  in  the  blue  heavens.  Indeed,  that  great  cen- 
tral force  which  flashed  out  upon  Newton's  mind  and  inaugu- 
rated a  new  era  in  the  world's  progress,  binds  together  the 
whole  material  universe.  Whether  we  consider  this  power  as 
absolute  or  otherwise  we  are  forced  to  admit  that  it  acts  as 
though  it  were  directed  by  a  supreme  will.  In  this  controlling 
force  over  matter  we  find  an  admirable  exemplification  of  the 
divine  creative  energy  which  gave  it  being  and  still  holds  it 
|joised  upon  the  arm  that  is  almighty.  Besides  this  all  the 
planetary  worlds  hung  out  upon  their  orbits  teach  us  a  lesson 
of  obedience.  The  very  comets,  after  an  apparent  wandering 
tor  centuries,  through  the  unknown  regions  of  the  Creator,  re- 
turn in  obedience  to  the  behest  of  this  central  power.  While 
the  law  of  force  and  obedience  is  so  wonderfully  displayed  in 
the  heavenly  bodies,  and  while  this  order  and  harmony  pre- 
sent to  us  so  grand  a  lesson  for  our  learning,  it  must  be  kept 
in  mind  that  man  only  is  found  among  all  the  handiwork  of  the 
Creator  to  rebel  against  the  supreme  will.  We  must  remem- 
ber, too,  that  only  man  has  been  invested  with  intelligence, 
with  freedom  of  will  and  the  power  of  choice,  and  he  is  there 
fore  put  to  shame  in  his  disobedience  by  the  devotion  of  obe- 
dient worlds.  It  is  this  intelligence,  this  freedom  of  will,  this 
immortality  with  which  man  is  invested  that  exalts  him  above 
the  spheres. 

And  now  of  the   things  written   aforetime   for  our   learning 


10 

what  shall  I  say,  of  history,  and  poetry  and  literature.  I  can 
not  take  the  time  here  to  discuss  at  length  the  valuable  lessons 
which  history  teaches  us  of  human  events —  of  the  records  it 
makes  of  the  rise  and  downfall  of  nations  and  empires — of  the 
records  it  gives  us  of  the  divine  dispensations  with  human 
governments  and  peoples — of  the  discovery  and  regeneration 
of  continents — of  the  recovery  of  our  race  from  barbarism  and 
the  progress  of  civilization — of  the  uprising  of  the  hydra-head- 
ed monster  infidelity,  and  how  it  has  failed  in  the  unequal  con- 
flict with  God.  What  a  vast  field  is  here  presented  to  us  from 
which  to  replenish  our  stores  of  knowledge  for  future  use  and 
for  our  own  mental  culture  and  improvement.  Let  me  urge 
you,  my  brethren,  to  read  history;  not,  however,  in  the  custom- 
ary way,  as  mere  narrative,  but  study  as  you  read  the  divinity 
and  philosophy  that  underlie  it.  I  have  scarcely  known  a  per- 
son well  read  in  history  who  was  not  intelligent  and  qualified 
to  impart  profitable  information.  It  has  a  tendency  also  to 
improve  our  language  and  style,  and  to  add  to  our  fluency  as 
public  speakers,  and  no  minister  ought  to  be  without  a  famil- 
iar knowledge  of  it.  There  is,  however,  let  me  say,  my  breth- 
ren no  such  thing  in  fact  as  profane  history.  All  histor3r  truth- 
fully written  is  but  a  record  of  the  dealings  of  God  with  na- 
tions and  peoples,  and  bears  upon  every  page  of  it  the  foot- 
prints of  a  hidden  divinity.  Here  is  a  prolific  field  for  thought 
and  study — a  field  from  which  we  may  gather  a  rich  harvest  of 
practical  and  valuable  information,  for  our  use  in  the  work  of 
the  holy  ministry. 

It  is  with  much  misgiving  that  I  venture  to  say  a  few  words, 
about  poetry  and  the  authors  who  wrote  it,  before  so  scholarly 
an  assembly  of  divines  as  this.  I  will  say,  however,  th.it  there 
has  lived  but  one  Homer,  who,  in  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey,  struck 
out  from  his  own  brain,  without  a  teacher,  those  glowing  sparks 
which  iuspired  the  songs  of  the  bards  and  filled  the  Orient 
with  the  sublimest  pictures  of  intellectual  grandeur  and  beauty .. 
And  it  may  be  said  of  the  poetic  creations  of  John  Milton  that 
no  English  speaking  poet  has  been  his  peer.  The  personalities 
and  pictures  in  Paradise  Lost  stand  unrivaled  in  Euglish  verse. 
Indeed,  with  all  the  imitative  capacity  of  our  race,  no  one  has 
been  found  able  to  rival  or  copy  the  poetic  genius  of  these 
great  masters,  Homer  and  Milton,  and  to  them  is  due  a  special 
meed  of  praise,  because,  while  they  made  free  use  of  poetic  li- 
cense, they  did  not,  in  reality,  present  a  character  or  ideal  per^ 
sonality  nor  construct  a  sentence  calculated  to  convey  an  im- 
pure or  unchaste  thought  to  the  iniud.  And  to  them,  as  poets,, 
we  must  yet  go  for  our  sublimest  thoughts  and  conceptions 
with  which  to  adorn  and  beautify  our  language.  This  of  itself 
is  worthy  of  your  consideration. 

In  sacred  poetry  and  hymnology  Charles  Wesley  certainly  has 


11 

no  peer.  His  sacred  lyrics  have  furnished  us,  in  verse,  a  body 
of  divinity —  a  poetic  treatise  on  the  great  cardinal  doctrines 
of  the  Bible  not  equalled  in  the  writings  of  any  other  poet. 
To  superior  poetic  merit  lie  added  a  pathos  and  earnestness 
which  could  only  come  from  a  heart  overwhelmed  with  a  con 
scions  sense  of  spiritual  regeneration  and  all  afire  with  the 
presence  and  love  of  God.  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  Charles 
Wesley's  hymns  contain  the  best — the  most  practical  exposi- 
tion of  experimental  religiou  uow  extant,  and  we  can  not  af- 
ford, as  a  church,  to  ignore  or  exchange  them  for  the  present 
frivolous  and  more  popular  ditties.  The  experimental  and  doc- 
trinal depths  of  these  Wesleyan  hymns  invest  them  with  a 
power,  which  had,  in  the  days  of  our  fathers,  much  to  do  with 
that  great  gospel  revival  called  Methodism.  A  single  compari- 
son between  Charles  Wesley  and  Isaac  Watts  will  verify  what 
I  have  said  in  regard  to  Wesley's  superior  knowledge  in  the 
deep  spiritual  things  of  God.  While  Watts  stood  at  the  foot 
of  Mt.  Pisgah  with  his  eager,  longing  eyes  turned  toward  its 
hallowed  summit,  he  exclaimed 

"  Could  we  but  climb  where  Moses  stood 

And  view  the  landscape  o'er. 
Not  Jordan's  stream  nor  death's  cold  flood 

Should  fright  us  from  the  shore. ,? 

Now,  see  Charles  Wesley,  with  his  spiritual  vestments 
dipped  in  blood  and  fired  by  the  presence  of  the  witnessing 
spirit.  He  stood  amidst  the  topmost  glory  of  the  spiritual  Mt. 
Pisgah  and  taking  one  long  ravishing  view  of  the  glorious  in- 
heritance beyond,  he  exclaimed 

iw  The  promised  land  from  Pisgah  "s  top 

I  now  exult  to  see  ; 
My  hope  is  full  (O  glorious  hope) 

Of  immortality." 

This  contrast,  my  brethren,  is  striking  and  the  difference  es- 
sential. 

in  English  composition  and  literature,  I  am  sorry  to  say.  I  do 
not  see  the  progress  which  the  boast  and  parade  of  our  times 
indicate.  Upon  this  subject  I  have  but  few  words  to  say. 
This  much,  however,  I  will  say,  that  a  good  deal  of  chaffy 
French  is  now  being  substituted  for  much  good  English.  The 
French  language,  too,  as  it  is  found  in  French  literature,  does 
not  tend  to  the  development  of  heart  purity,  and  besides  this, 
it  adds  nothing  to  the  beauty  and  force  of  English  composi- 
tion. The  same  may  be  said  of  our  current,  light  English  lit- 
erature, which  abounds  in  language  expressive  of  imagination 
and  passion,  but  is  destitute  of  sober  thought  and  commend 
able  brain  work  ;  and  besides  this,  it  is  mischievous  and  dan- 
gerous to  society.  It  is  the  mother  of  numerous  social  evils. — 
It  is  the  handmaid  of  domestic  infelicity  and  a  potent  obstrnc 


12 

tion  to  the  spirituality  and  simplicity  of  a  pare  and  holy  Chris- 
tian life.  If  yon,  my  brethren,  would  study  the  power  and  de- 
sire the  best  use  of  good  English — if  you  would  be  terse  and 
-ornate  in  your  style — you  will  find  models  in  Burke  andGrattan, 
in  Jeffreys  and  Macauley,  in  Webster  and  Calhoun,  in  Fletcher 
and  Wesley,  worthy  your  study. 

And  now,  above  all  else,  among  the  "things  written  aforetime 
for  our  learning,"  I  besech  you  to  study  the  sermons  and  mira- 
acles  of  our  Lord.  Study  the  lives  and  labors,  the  consecra- 
tion and  peculiarities  of  the  apostles.  If  you  would  be  truly 
great  in  your  lives — if  yon  would  lessen  human  woe  and  help 
to  raise  this  sin-blighted  world  from  moral  desolation  and  ig- 
norance— take  lessons  from  the  Master  who  presided  over  the 
little  company  of  disciples  in  Judea.  Strive  to  emulate  the 
twelve  who  counted  not  their  lives  dear  if  they  might  win  souls 
to  Christ.  This  labor  of  love  is  the  chief  good  of  a  preacher's 
life  and  the  guaranty  of  his  crown  of  rejoicing. 

I  have,  in  the  preceding  paragraphs,  passed  rapidiy  over  a 
broad  held  for  thought.  This  I  have  done  for  two  reasons  : — 
1st,  Because  the  learning  of  a  Christian  minister  ought,  in  my 
judgment,  to  be  so  diversified  as  to  take  in  a  knowledge  of  the 
character,  the  conditions,  the  progress  and  causes  of  civiliza- 
tion through  all  the  ages ;  and  2d,  Because  the  several  topics 
under  discussion  furnish  a  great  treasure-house  from  which  we 
may  draw  much  material  for  thought  and  mental  culture  that 
we  may  be  thereby  the  better  equipped  for  the  great  battle  with 
modern  infidelity,  and  because  I  thought  that  I  might,  at  my 
time  of  life,  call  the  attention  of  youuger  brethren  to  them. 

What  I  said  of  the  latent  powers  of  the  hnmau  mind  and  its 
•development  and  growth  in  the  beginning  of  this  discourse  is 
true  of  the  moral  man  in  his  fallen  state.  It  was  upon  this  as- 
sumption of  man's  moral  and  spiritual  ignorance  and  utter  help- 
lessness, and  the  absolute  necessity  for  instruction  and  guid- 
ance that  our  Lord  commissioned  the  twelve  and  ordered  them 
u#o  teach  all  nations. v  This  command  applies  with  equal  force 
to  all,  who  in  the  succeeding  ages,  have  been  and  may  be  call- 
ed to  this  work.  Those,  however,  who  are  entrusted  with  the 
work  of  teaching  must  first  be  taught  themselves.  They  must 
be  qualified  by  spiritual  regeneration,  must  bring  the  certifi- 
cate of  the  witnessing  Spirit,  must  have  the  signet  of  spiritual 
power,  before  they  are  worthy  of  a  teacher's  trust.  Nor  are 
we  left  to  mere  conjecture  on  so  important  a  ma'ter,  for  the  last 
words  of  our  Lord  before  he  ascended  are  full  and  explicit: — 
aYe  shall  receive  power  after  that  the  Holy  Ghost  is  come  upon 
you,  and  ye  shall  be  witnesses  unto  me  both  in  Jerusalem  and 
in  all  Judea,  and  in  Samaria,  and  unto  the  uttermost  part  of 
the  earth.'*  This  pledge  to  the  twelve  and  the  little  company 
•of  disciples  was  fulfilled  on  the  Pentecost,  when  the  final  qual- 


13 

ification  was  given  and  tbe  work  of  teaching-  commenced  in 
earnest — a  work  which  is  to  continue  until  the  glory  of  Messiah's 
reign  shall  extend  "from  sea  to  sea,  and  from  the  rivers  unto 
the  ends  of  the  earth." 

Nor  is  it  incompatible  with  the  language  of  the  text  that 
"whatsoever  things  were  written  aforetime  were  written  for  our 
learning,"  if  we  apply  it  to  the  history  of  the  church  from  the 
days  of  St.  Paul  to  the  present.  I  pity  the  preacher  who  can 
read  and  study  this  history  of  the  Christian  centuries  and  re- 
main a  formalist — a  plodding  iceberg  in  the  pulpit — a  mere 
gladiator  in  the  field  of  sacramentalism,  while  the  seething, 
raging  multitudes  of  sinners  are  rushing  madly  upon  the  very 
gates  of  hell.  Let  the  blood-stained  pages  of  this  history  fire 
erery  good,  brave  heart,  and  bring  out  a  united  pulpit  to  buckle 
on  the  whole  armor  of  God  and  grapple  with  the  common  foe 
until  the  shout  of  victory  shall  be  heard  in  every  land.  There 
is  ample  in  this  history  for  our  hope  and  encouragement.  The 
faith  and  endurance  of  the  martyrs,  the  unswerving  fidelity  of 
Luther  and  Melancthon  to  the  doctrine  of  faith  only  in  the  jus- 
tification of  the  sinner,  the  heroie  faith  and  labors  of  Arminius 
and  Wesley  and  their  co-workers  iu  behalf  of  free  grace  and 
impartial,  though  conditional  salvation,  and  the  witness  of  the 
Spirit  wrought  untold  benefits  to  mankind  and  changed  the 
Christian  map  of  the  world.  As  one  of  the  fruits  of  those 
labors  the  Methodist  church  was  brought  into  being — a  church 
whose  highest  aim  has  ever  been  to  contend  for  the  faith  once 
delivered  to  the  saints  and  help  on  with  the  grand  work  of  the 
world's  conversion.  And  we  are  admonished  by  analogous 
reasoning  that  if  Methodism  remains  true  to  her  trust — to  the 
grand  scriptural  doctrines  which  gave  her  being  and  has  ever 
been  the  source  of  her  power  and  success,  no  sacramentalism  or 
priestly  goblins  nor  any  other  power  on  earth  can  destroy    her. 

There  is  also  a  traditional  and  oral  chapter  in  the  early  his- 
tory of  Holston  Methodism  worthy  the  profoundest  considera- 
tion of  us  all.  It  concerns  the  labors  of  the  pioneers — the  cav- 
alrymen some  of  whom  often  traveled  from  four  to  six  hundred 
miles  on  horseback  to  attend  the  session  of  an  annual  confer- 
ence. These  were  the  men  who  built  up  this  great  structural 
Methodism  and  bequeathed  it  to  us  as  an  inheritance.  They 
cleared  away  the  rubbish  and  labored  upon  the  foundations 
while  we  toil  only  upon  the  dome.  They  bore  the  heat  and 
burden  of  the  day,  and  we  enter  in  to  enjoy  the  fruits  of  their 
labors.  They  occupied  the  front  rank  and  manned  the  hean/ 
guns  iu  the  great  battle  for  truth  and  we  are  now  the  benefici- 
aries of  their  victories  and  triumphs.  They  did  not  skirmish 
or  dally  and  caress  with  error  and  popular  sins  but  joined  the 
battle  with  the  foe  on  sight.  They  carried  no  flags  of  truce 
and  offered  no  compromises  as  to  the  boundary    line    between. 


14 

sin  aud  righteousness,  but  stood  in  the  breach  like  a  great  bul- 
wark beating  back  his  satauie  majesty  and  the  imps  of"  hell 
at  every  point.  This  they  did  with  the  grand  fundamental 
doctrines  of  the  Bible,  human  depravity,  repentance,  faith,  re- 
generation, the  witness  of  the  Spirit  aud  free  grace,  and  above 
all  and  the  chiefest  of  all  gospel  weapous,  the  invisible  power 
•of  the  Holy  Gho«t.  Those  fathers  of  our  Methodism  were  in- 
deed great  lovers  of  truth.  It  was  their  shield  and  buckler. 
Upon  it  they  founded  their  hopes,  aud  with  it,  in  the  name  of 
•God  they  lifted  up  their  banners  aud  marched  to  victory  and 
conquest.  But  few  of  them  were  educated,  as  the  world  counts 
education.  Yet  they  were  learned  in  the  great  principles  and 
plan  of  human  redemption  aud  salvation.  They  did  not  believe 
that  God  had  restricted  himself,  exclusively,  to  an  educated 
class  in  calling  mankind  to  repentance.  Bather,  they  relied 
upon  the  truth  through  which  God  hath  chosen  men,  by  the 
belief  of  it,  to  salvation.  Aud  in  the  exposition  and  applica- 
tion of  the  truth  they  trusted  to  the  highest  of  all  gospel  sour- 
ces, the  presence  and  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  make  it  effec- 
tive iu  the  salvatiou  of  sinners.  It  was  at  this  point  and 
through  these  agencies  that  they  achieved  their  victories — 
that  they  saw  whole  congregations  bow  and  tremble  before 
God.  It  was  that  heroic  faith — that  invisible  presence— those 
burning  coals  upou  the  altar  that  assured  their  success.  O, 
had  we,  my  brethren,  the  conscious  presence  of  God,  as  they 
often  had  it.  Had  we  the  implicit  confidence  which  they 
possessed.  Did  we  feel  iu  our  pulpit  work  that  tender  melting 
love  which  so  often  thrilled  them  as  they  wrestled  with  God 
for  the  salvation  of  precious  souls — O  had  we  the  baptism  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  as  I  have  seeu  them  have  it  ere  this  Confer- 
ence session  closes,  we  would  see  the  batteries  of  hell  shaken 
to  their  very  foundations  in  the  city  of  Asheville  Treasure  it 
in  your  minds,  my  brethren,  that  there  is  nothing  less  required 
now  in  the  work  of  salvation — in  repentance,  in  faith  and  the 
new  birth  than  there  was  fifty  years  ago.  God  has  not-altered 
his  method  in  conversion  and  its  spritual  depth,  nor  modified 
his  agencies  for  its  accomplishment  from  the  time  of  that  mem- 
orable interview  between  Nicodemus  and  our  Lord  to  the  pres- 
ent hour.  Now,  if  we  adhere  to  this  gospel  standard — this 
magna  charta — this  grand  fundamental  constitution  of  our 
church,  Methodism  in  Holston  is  destined  to  achieve  new  vic- 
tories and  go  on  to  new  conquests. 

It  has  been  generallv  believed  that  old  men,  and  old  preach- 
ers especially,  become  croakers.  I,  however,  have  no  quarrel 
with  you,  my  brethren  of  the  Holston  Conference.  My  obser- 
vation and  experience  have  been  that  old  men  are  usually  more 
intolerant  of  each  other  than  young  men.  Young  men  as  a 
rule  are  rather  disposed  to  be  neglectful — to  be  especially  ob- 


15 

livious  of  the  experience  and  observations  of  the  aged — are 
more  inclined,  particularly  in  their  pulpit  performances,  to  the 
pardonable  vanity  of  Robert  Burn's  Scotch  'daddies"  whom 
he  ironically  said  knew  "muier  than  their  auld  daddies."'  Be 
fchis  as  it  may,  the  first  element  in  the  character  of  a  Christian 
gentleman  or  lady  is  deference  for  others,  especially  the  aged 
and  infirm.  I  am  by  no  means  despoudeut  of  the  Church  on 
account  of  its  young  ministers.  They  are  the  hope  of  the 
•Church  and  the  world.  Cod  has  never  iutended  to  leave  him- 
self without  witnesses  and  messengers  of  salvation  and  upon 
you  have  fallen  the  mantles  of  our  sainted  fathers  of  the  Con- 
ference. I  believe  God  will  consecrate  and  be  with  you  in  your 
work  of  reaping  the  uow  whitening  fields.  1  believe  that  when 
I  am  gathered  to  the  realms  of  the  dead  with  those  in  whose 
ranks  I  served  half  a  century  ago  you  will  serve  my  children 
aud  my  children's  children  with  the  same  blessed  gospel  which 
has  all  the  while  been  the  comfort  and  support  of  my  life  for 
more  than  fifty-two  years.  To  believe  less  would  be  treason  to 
my  creed,  treachery  to  my  faith  and  an  abandonment  of  all  the 
hopes  that  have  quickened  and  cheered  my  life.  I  believe  also 
from  the  history  of  the  past  and  the  promises  of  G-od  for  the 
future,  that  Methodism  will  continue  to  grow  and  will  expand 
iuto  one  of  the  grandest  auxiliary  forces  for  the  world's  con- 
version ;  and  iu  the  final  harvest  of  the  earth  she  will  come  up 
to  the  final  reckoning  bringing  her  sheaves  with  her.  Then, 
when  our  work  is  done — when  the  last  wild  wave  of  human  woe 
shall  have  spent  its  fury  upon  the  earth,  and  the  cries  of  the 
widow  and  the  orphan  shall  be  heard  no  longer,  and  when  the 
last  piteous  wail  of  the  damned  shall  be  hushed  amidst  the 
loud  thunders  of  eternal  justice,  the  augel  of  love  and  mercy 
wdl  come  to  gather  us  home  to  the  marriage  supper  of  the 
Lamb.  O  what  a  glorious  reunion  of  the  loved  and  the  just 
that  will  be!  Abel  and  Enoch  and  Elijah  will  be  there.  Mo- 
ses, and  Joshua,  and  Samuel,  aud  Abraham  will  be  there.  And 
che  prophets  of  God  and  the  apostles  of  Christ  will  be  there. 
And  the  martyrs  who  gave  their  lives  for  the  love  of  God,  and 
Luther,  and  Melancthon,  and  Stilliugfleet,  and  Lord  King,  aud 
the  Wesleys,  and  Whitfield,  and  John  Fletcher  with  his  checks, 
aud  our  sainted  fathers  of  the  Conference  whom  we  have  known 
and  loved  so  well  will  be  there;  and  we  hope  through  the 
abounding  mercy  and  love  of  God  to  be  there  also  to  join  with 
the  general  assembly  and  Church  of  the  first  born  in  heaven 
in  singiug  that  grand  old  hymn : 

All  hail  the  power  of  Jesus"  name. 

Let  angels  prostrate  fall; 
Bring  forth  the  royal  diadem 

And  crown  him  Lord  of  all. 


16 

Ye  Gentile  sinners  ne'er  forget 

The  wormwood  and  the  gall. 
Go,  spread  your  trophies  at  his  feet. 

And  crown  him  Lord  of  all. 

Let  every  kindred,  every  tribe, 

On  this  terrestrial  ball, 
To  him  all  majesty  ascribe, 

And  crown  him  Lord  of  all. 

O,  that  with  yonder  sacred  throng, 

We  at  his  feet  may  fall ! 
We'll  join  the  everlasting  song 

And  crown  him  Lord  of  all. 

O,  brethren,  had  I  the  lungs  of  Gabriel,  the  voice  of  an  arch- 
angel, I  would  raise  to-night,  in  the  city  of  Asheville,  a  shout 
that  would  leap  from  mountain  peak  to  mountain  peak  until 
the  whole  of  this  grand  plateau  would  tremble  from  center  to 
circumference  with  the  victorious  shouts  of  the  Lord's  hosts. — 
"And  now,  unto  him  that  is  able  to  do  exceeding  abundantly 
above  all  that  we  ask  or  think,  according  to  the  power  that 
worketh  in  us  :  Unto  him  be  glory  in  the  Church  by  Christ 
Jesus  throughout  all  ages  world  without  end.  Amen."  And 
let  all  the  people  say  amen. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  N.C.  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


00034002490 

FOR  USE  ONLY  IN 
THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  COLLECTION 


Form  No.  A-368,  Rev.  8/95 


